Arabella
by Lori von Loco
Summary: "Amethyst, on the other hand, saw time tick by with amazing clarity, as if each second were a grain of sand in an hourglass sitting before her. She imagined that she was counting down the time they had left to be together as friends." In which a thousand years of pent-up romantic frustration creates a very delicate situation in Beach City.


** Arabella**

**A/N: **Steven Universe is the cutest little show ever. And man, since Pearl has strawberry blonde hair, I had some difficulty deciding whether to call her a blonde or a redhead, haha. I went with blonde in the end. Anyway, here's my first oneshot for this show!

* * *

"_It's an exploration, she's made of outer space_

_And her lips are like the galaxy's edge_

_And her kiss the colour of a constellation falling into place."_

—Arabella, Arctic Monkeys

* * *

Pearl may not have been the most agreeable gem in the universe, nor was she particularly fun to be around, most of the time—she was hardly ever anything but physically-manifested level-headedness or over-worried preaching—and yet Amethyst couldn't seem to get enough of her. Though she got tired of the seemingly endless reprimands, by the end of the day she always came back.

Today the argument started with a question, the volume of which teetered precariously between yelling and speaking: "Why're you always telling me what to do?"

It only escalated from there, both in volume and in pitch, but that didn't matter—none of the theatrics mattered, since the tiff was essentially rephrased versions of the same instigation and response they'd started with.

"You don't always have to boss me around!"

"I _wouldn't_ if you'd _listen _for once." Pearl's voice was shrill, yet she was no longer yelling, as Garnet had entered with an ice-cream-bearing Steven in tow.

"Are you guys fighting?" the boy asked, eyebrows furrowing.

They responded in unison with opposite answers, Amethyst taking up the affirmative, Pearl the negative; the former caught the worst of the strawberry-blonde's glare, which she issued just before turning delicately on her heel and not so much stomping as gliding off.

Garnet returned to her own room without a word, but Amethyst could tell she was upset. They'd fought in front of Steven again, even if it was only for a moment this time.

Amethyst thought of the time Garnet sent her and Pearl off to find the Heaven Beetle, when her own overzealous folly had accidentally knocked Steven off of a suspended rock and into the sky that stretched endlessly beneath them. There was a flash of hot panic in her chest, then the sound of Pearl screeching her name just as Steven's wordless yell broke through the clouds.

In a span of two seconds, a hand was clapped on her shoulder and adrenaline forced her weapon out of her gem. Her palm found its way onto the blonde's lower back, meaning to guide her off the edge, as superfluous as the help was. Pearl had already leapt into the air, and her weight snapped downward with little more than two bounces on the rope. The way her fist tightened around the fall of the purple whip put a peculiar ache in Amethyst's chest. Her weapon wasn't exactly part of her heart, but Pearl managed to tug at it hard enough that it felt that way, sometimes.

They rescued Steven without hassle. He was shaken but fine, although it was inevitable that Pearl would omit the latter fact when she brought the situation up later.

Further on in their mission, Amethyst and Pearl had danced—if it could be called a dance—and, for a moment, the shorter gem _felt _like Opal. She felt engaged in a silent conversation with her teammate, able to understand her thoughts and predict her movements just from the desire to do so. Her arm stretched out, fingertips warmed almost imperceptibly by the smooth heat that rose just millimeters off the taller gem's skin. She caught Pearl by the hand, and that's when it became evident that their dancing really was horrifically unsymmetrical.

A sharp, bony elbow connected with a spot just above Amethyst's right eye, rendering her attempt to dip the other girl useless. The fusion failed, and more arguments arose afterward.

Steven could've gotten killed.

Amethyst remembered that mission; she remembered everything Pearl told her, despite what the latter based her arguments on. She just chose not to listen. This wasn't because she liked annoying Pearl directly. She knew that much, despite the fact she wasn't exactly sure why she _did _do it. She had an inkling, though, that she didn't want to acknowledge.

She knew that she felt _something_, sometimes on missions but usually at home, in temporary peace and a debatable amount of comfort. Of course, out of the three of them, not counting Steven, she was most prone to sweeps of emotion, the ones that came in waves and left in ripples, hardly lasting more than a few hours at a time. Because of this, she always assumed that that _something _feeling would go away. While it sometimes grew duller, it was always there and had been since she discovered it a thousand years ago.

She felt it stronger than usual today.

"Hey, Pearl," she started, furrowing her brows, "I feel like something's…coming."

The blonde was sitting on the floor with both legs straight in front of her. She continued clutching her toes and leaning forward, not even looking up as she replied, "Garnet said she didn't sense anything today. She would certainly let us know if she did now." This was punctuated with a slow, deep inhalation.

Amethyst commanded her air in the opposite format; from her lips came an abrupt huff, and an inquiry followed. "What if Garnet's wrong?"

At that, Pearl sat upright, though she still didn't look up. "She's never wrong. Not about something as important as that."

"Okay, yeah, but what if she _is?_"

"Are you listening to me at all?" Her voice was clipped now, a sure sign that an argument was unavoidable.

"Of course I am, but—"

"Then there _are _no buts, Amethyst." Pearl stood.

"Can't you just _listen _to me?"

"I_ am_ listening, despite your failure to do the same." She put her hands on her hips, hands turned inward toward her stomach, as usual.

"You _always _say that!

"Because it's the truth! You don't listen to me when I tell you things."

Amethyst's tone grew defensive. "I listen! And I always remember it when it's important."

The taller gem crossed her arms and cocked one hip. "That's exactly the problem: you don't have the sense to differentiate between what's important and what isn't."

Amethyst threw her hands up, grumbled a brisk but colorful insult, and stomped out of the house. She'd slammed the door behind her before Pearl had even recovered from the shock.

* * *

"Garnet, may I speak with you?"

The gem in question put her book down in her lap, set her hands palms-down on top of it, and turned her head toward the source of the voice.

This was unusual at best, as it was strange to hear Pearl sound so unconfident. So strange, in fact, that Pearl had even attempted to conceal it with an indifferent tone and just wasn't practiced enough to succeed. "There is no chance that Beach City could see something dangerous today, right?"

Garnet nodded twice, brushing some stray, dark curls from the top of her glasses with the back of her hand as she did.

"You're positive?"

Another nod. Pearl kept talking, anyway, even though her voice kept growing shriller and was catching between words as if her voice were hitting miniature potholes on the way out of her mouth. "Because Amethyst had some ridiculous idea that something seemed…funny."

Garnet's body didn't stir on her chair in the slightest when she spoke. "Funny?"

"I mean, she said she felt funny."

For whatever reason, Garnet smiled, if only for a second. "I don't think she is talking about anything disastrous."

"Oh, good!" Pearl laughed a little uneasily, but appeared significantly calmer than she had been when she'd entered the study. "She was saying some silly thing like how you were wrong about there being no danger."

"Oh?"

The blonde's hands darted up in front of her chest to emphasize her verbal defense. "I told her that was crazy talk, of course."

"No…" Garnet hid the smile that had flashed on her face somewhere in the crevices of her next words. "She's right." After that, she simply returned to reading her book while Pearl paled and began shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"But…" she paused to force another laugh, "you just said—"

"I know what I said, and Amethyst is right."

"Then we must go fight!" Pearl's dramatic toss of her hands almost directly mimicked Amethyst's earlier version. "Why are we sitting here doing nothing?"

"Because the trouble in Beach City is right here in our home," Garnet answered fluidly. "And it has nothing to do with monsters."

* * *

"Nothing to do with monsters!" Pearl grabbed her ballet flats from their designated spot and slipped them onto her feet as she spoke, a tad incredulously, to the empty living room. "If there aren't monsters around, then where is the danger?"

As it was, the room wasn't as empty as she'd previously thought, and a voice from the door cut in with, "So there _is _danger," and prompted Pearl to yip in a very undignified manner.

"_Steven._ Who told you there was—" The answer came to her before she'd even finished asking the question, so she switched tactics at last second. "There is no danger."

A second voice piped up with, "Yuh-huh there is."

"Amethyst, don't tell him that!"

"You just said there was danger. I was _listening_." The shorter gem smirked; Pearl sighed exasperatedly.

"Fine. Garnet did say there was something." At that, the boy sidled up to her with wide, sparkling eyes.

"What is it? Something I can help with?"

"I don't know, Steven." The blonde straightened, then proceeded to sweep imaginary dust off of her sheer skirt with nimble hands. Amethyst watched the movement until it was concluded, which was the exact instant she realized she'd been staring and automatically started talking as if she felt inclined to cover it up.

"Uhh, okay, so… What is it?"

"I thought you would want to gloat first," Pearl muttered, too quiet for Steven to catch but just audible enough for the other's ears.

"Well gee! I'm sorry," the shorter gem said, loud enough for the entire house to hear. Nothing about her tone indicated an actual apology.

Pearl clasped a hand on Steven's shoulder and cleared her throat pointedly. Amethyst didn't catch the hint, or if she had she didn't let on. "Did you _want _me to gloat, Miss Condescending?"

"I'm not trying to be condescending, I was simply under the impression that—"

"That I was going to be an annoying bitch?"

Pearl gasped and put her palms over Steven's ears. "Amethyst! Language!"

Steven, who'd covered his mouth at the same time his ears had become captives of Pearl's motherly conduct, took his hands away from his face after a few seconds and regarded Amethyst with wide eyes. "Woah… I've never heard you guys say those kinds of words before!"

Arms were crossed on both gems' ends, though the blonde was certainly not smiling as she did so. Amethyst, on the other hand… "Was it funny?"

The boy's grin spread across his face in a flash. "Y—"

"_No,_" Pearl cut in. "It was absolutely not funny. Steven, could you give us a moment?"

"But I want to—"

"It'll only take a minute." Pearl's voice was tight as she tried to contain her annoyance. Steven didn't want to tempt his fate by arguing further, so, after a moment of pouting, he acquiesced. By the time he'd made it to the hall, however, his curiosity won out over his good nature and he hid behind the wall, poised carefully on hands and knees to watch the two gems argue around the corner.

"Great, now we're going to be responsible if he starts using that word everywhere," the blonde fretted, beginning to pace the living room in her agitation. The other remained stationary, arms still crossed, one eyebrow raised.

"Calm down, Pearl. He isn't going to say it."

"How do you know that?"

"Because he's a good kid."

"Who thought what you said was _funny!_"

"It was kind of funny."

"It really wasn't."

"All right, fine. Gosh." Amethyst rolled her eyes. "Sorry for cursing in front of Steven, or whatever. Now will you hurry up and tell me what Garnet told you?"

The taller gem looked around nervously and, in her search, uncovered the boy's hiding place. After a startled shriek of his name left her mouth for the second time that day, she decided that the house wasn't the best of places to be speaking about important matters such as this and gestured for Amethyst to follow her into her room in the temple. The doors closed behind them with a whoosh of air. Neither of them moved from where they stood, side-by-side less than a foot from the entrance.

"So," Amethyst began, looking up at the other.

"I don't know what's wrong." The answer was hasty, quiet.

"What do you mean? You kept me waiting all this time just to tell me that you don't even _know _what's going to happen to Beach City?"

"Whatever it is, it's not happening in the city. It's happening here."

"Here, as in…?"

"This house."

Amethyst felt an uncomfortable sort of cold burning in her chest. "You don't think Steven's in danger, do you?"

It took a while, but eventually Pearl shook her head. "I don't think so. If he was, Garnet would've told us what was going on."

"Then what's the big deal?"

The water that occupied most of the room gurgled softly in the absence of a response. Pearl thought about the way Garnet smiled, as if she really did know something was happening and just didn't want to say. Perhaps it was too dangerous for them…?

She sunk to the floor, legs straight out in front of her exactly as they had been the first time Amethyst had seen her today. The aforementioned gem shrugged and sat beside her, moving a little closer somewhere in the shuffling toward the ground.

Pearl didn't seem to mind, despite her usual insistence for personal space. All she did was tilt her head back against the door and stare blankly at the waterfalls for a long stretch of time before she finally decided to speak again. "I don't know what's going on, to tell the truth. It could be nothing, or it could be something very bad."

"Well," Amethyst began, a little put off by her teammate's suddenly flat tone, "you know how Garnet is."

"Of course. But she…smiled."

"So?"

"Doesn't that seem weird to you?" Pearl looked to her right, catching Amethyst's gaze. "That she would smile about something potentially dangerous, I mean."

"Eh, not really." Another shrug. "That probably means she's got it covered. Or maybe it really is nothing and you're overthinking it."

"You're the one that brought it up. How can you say _I'm_ overthinking it?"

Amethyst scoffed. "Because you are, dummy."

"I am _not_ a dummy."

"You kinda are, Pearl." Amethyst giggled.

"If I'm kind of a dummy, then you're hopeless."

The shorter gem blew air of her mouth before erupting into a single loud laugh. "What_ever_. You're, like, a thousand times more hopeless than me."

"Than I."

"Yeah, you. See what I mean?"

"I was just correcting you."

"Tch. As usual."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Pearl had stood and put her hands on her hips before Amethyst could even manage a groan.

"You correct me all the time, that's what that means. You correct me almost as much as you boss me around."

"We are not having this argument again."

"Apparently we are, 'cause you're pissed off again."

"You don't seem to understand," here, Amethyst's loud scoff and a mumble of "of course I wouldn't" cut in and was ignored, "that I tell you what to do because I'm trying to protect you."

"That's dumb! Why would you _want _to protect someone who apparently is _always _on your nerves?" Amethyst finally got to her feet as well, prepared to walk out on the argument altogether.

"You're not always on my nerves!" Pearl made a frustrated sound. Her fingers twitched at her sides, but she managed to still this movement by taking a deep breath. "You don't have any idea why I say all those things to you. Don't make my actions seem like a way to hold you down."

"Then why do you do it, huh? Tell me that. That is, if Her Majesty _feels _like it." With a grunt, Amethyst clicked one booted foot against the ground, creating a steady albeit fast-paced rhythm on the stone below. _Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat. _Her eyes bore into Pearl's.

After an agonizing moment of trying to calm down, the blonde's features relaxed, irritation melting away into another sigh. "Why I do it is my own business."

"It involves me, too. I want to know."

At first she thought she may've been hallucinating, but a moment later Amethyst was sure she saw Pearl wince.

"It's not important, Amethyst."

"No? I thought _everything_ you had to say was important."

"Well, this isn't." Pearl set her lips into a line, ending the conversation as she walked right past the other and left the room.

Amethyst blinked once in an effort to process the oddity that had just occurred. It wasn't like Pearl to just leave something like that hanging, especially without fully explaining her side of the story.

She shook her head and returned to the living room, armed with a fuselage of questions but stopped short when she noticed Garnet milling around. By the time she'd made it to the middle of the room, the dark-haired gem was pulling up couch cushions.

"Hey, Garnet. Where did Pearl go?"

"Outside. With Steven."

"Thanks." She headed for the front door, then paused for a moment. "And, uh, what're you doing?"

"Looking for something."

"For what?"

Amethyst expected a clue to the mystery of the danger in the house. Instead, what she got was: "Steven lost his Cookie Cat keychain."

"Why isn't he the one lookin' for it?"

"He's a bit preoccupied at the moment. I told him what's going on."

"What's—" It clicked before the question even came out. "Ohhhh. I wanna know!"

Garnet smiled for a second, then continued searching the room in silence.

"C'mon, Garnet!"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you. I told him not to tell, either. It would be…troublesome."

Amethyst huffed. "I betcha he'll tell me."

Garnet only shrugged, so Amethyst took that as her cue to leave.

She found Pearl on the beach, pleading with the boy, if the look on her face meant anything. When the other gem got close enough, she could hear the words, "Please tell me, Steven. This could be a matter of safety!"

To which Steven gleefully returned, "Nope!"

"What do you mean, no?"

"It's not dangerous, really. Garnet told me so!"

Amethyst approached the other gem and slung an arm around her waist, testing the boundary of her mastery at acting nonchalant by using this as an opportunity to pull Pearl against her hip. "So, you guys tellin' secrets without me?"

"No! He won't breathe a word about it!" Pearl spluttered, clutching at Amethyst's right shoulder with a talon-like grip in what the latter figured was her way of expressing disapproval at having almost been tipped over sideways into the sand. As it stood, the shorter gem didn't mind much. Pearl had stopped pressing with her nails once her point had been made, and now her hand simply remained there, nearly lax. There wasn't really a reason for it, but it was a nice bit of warmth.

Thinking about it cost her her time frame for replying to what the other girl had said, giving Steven leeway to unconsciously fuel the blonde's curiosity even more. "Garnet said I shouldn't tell you guys because it might distract you from missions and stuff."

At that, Pearl scoffed. Loudly. Numerous times. Before she actually got a word out, Amethyst seized her slot for speaking to make up for her missing response from a moment ago. "Garnet _is _always right…" She grinned up at her companion, who met her gaze with ire and made a point to roll her eyes before returning their focus to Steven.

"Not always."

"Then you lied to me, Pearl. And isn't lying _bad?_"

At her words, Steven's eyes lit up again, and Amethyst, despite what she'd said earlier, earnestly hoped it wasn't because he was expecting to hear another swear word out of her.

"Lying is bad," Pearl agreed, mostly for Steven's sake. "I apologize."

"Right." The shorter girl finally unwound her arm from around her teammate's waist and caught a glance of Pearl's hand pressing gingerly against her own lower back for just a second before it returned to her side.

"So, Steven," the pleading tone had begun again.

Amethyst stopped her before she could continue. "Heyyy, I got an idea!" This was directed at the dark-haired boy, who recognized this and immediately crossed his arms in the most petulant manner he could manage. Which wasn't particularly convincing.

"I'm not telling."

"I'll buy you ice cream."

His face changed within two seconds. "Ice cream, huh?" He dropped his arms and beckoned Amethyst over. "Okay," he whispered in her ear through cupped hands, "I'll tell you if you promise you'll really get me ice cream."

Pearl made a mental note to mention to Garnet that Steven was about to sell out her secret for confectioneries, yet she didn't intervene at the risk of losing the information. A moment later she scratched the note out. If Steven got called out for trading secrets, she would be given a similar lecture for allowing it to happen in her presence. Tough break for both of them. And she _really _wanted to know what the matter was.

She'd been thinking the situation through for so long that she didn't notice the conversation transpiring between the other two gems until it ended, which only grabbed her attention because of the way Amethyst reacted to it.

"Amethyst, what is it?" She hadn't meant to sound so desperate.

The shorter girl's smile had melted away right in front of her, leaving her mouth slightly ajar and her face a shade too pale. "That's not true," she said.

Steven still managed to smile, despite how uncomfortable it looked now. "It's not? That's what Garnet told me."

"Well—Garnet's wrong."

"No I'm not." The voice, smooth and calm as always, still managed to ignite a shock in the tense air. Pearl yelped and spun on her heel, sloshing sand as she did; Steven jumped before his guilt kicked in; Amethyst scowled at the ocean, only to look away when she caught her reflection in the sunset-speckled ripples.

None of them spoke for a moment. Garnet's eyes focused on each of them one by one, turning Pearl's expression guilty, Steven's even more so, and Amethyst's a little more brooding. Finally, the words came—from the entire secret-swapping trio at once.

Garnet heard Steven first, due to sheer volume and conviction. "Amethyst bribed me to tell!"

Pearl next, as she spoke the fastest. "I just thought it might help us if we weren't worrying about it."

Amethyst last, though hers were the words that bore the weight of everyone's attention. "Feels good to be right all the time, doesn't it?"

When the tallest of them chose not to answer, Amethyst stormed past her, swiping the hand that attempted to lay itself on her shoulder. It was always a conscious gesture that Garnet used to assure, but her teammate brushed it off as if it were nothing.

Once the sound of sand crunching beneath Amethyst's feet grew dimmer and Pearl, on an impetus, ran after her, Garnet looked at Steven, who shrank under her gaze. At this, she only offered the comforting hand that the other had ignored. "It's all right that you told her, Steven."

"Should we go after—"

"No. They will fix this. They must, or there really will be danger."

This did little to assure the boy, but he nodded, anyway. "Y'know, I never would've guessed that, with how much they argue."

"Frustration builds quickly through the years. They have been like that for over a century. I can only hope…"

"Hope what?"

Garnet removed her hand from his shoulder. "That they're sensible enough to work it out on their own."

"You can't help them?"

She shook her head "Love is a difficult subject, Steven. If they do not handle it precisely the right way, it could be very, very bad."

* * *

Pearl was overwhelmed by curiosity, held like a burning blossom just beneath her ribs. Her face was stony, focused on the way Amethyst's eyes had become furtive the moment Pearl had caught up to her. "What did he tell you?"

"You don't wanna know."

"I clearly do, if I'm asking."

"You're only upset that I know somethin' you don't."

A hand was laid on Amethyst's shoulder, which she immediately cringed at but didn't jerk away from as she had with Garnet's.

Heat boiled beneath the surface of her skin, it seemed. The girl was on fire, taut with tension, ready to burst. The cool hand did little to calm her down.

"If we aren't in danger, then why is this such a big deal, Amethyst?" Pearl said the name deliberately, trying, in vain, to meet the other's gaze. When that didn't work, she let her free hand rest in the same manner as the first on the other side of Amethyst's neck, curling her fingers until she was cupping her shoulders. "Whatever it is, it won't bother me."

"Believe me, it will." Her eyes finally jerked to meet Pearl's. "That's why I'm not telling you."

Pearl made a frustrated sound and pulled her hands away. Before she could think to cross her arms, Amethyst had grabbed her wrists and was already speaking to ensure the blonde wouldn't ask questions.

"It's only a big deal because Garnet thinks we'll fuck it up if we both know about it."

_Language! _Pearl's subconscious said, but the forefront of her mind was busy cataloging that detail in hopes of piecing together this puzzle. "Why would we—" she began, only to stop herself when an image began to form in her mind.

Amethyst felt Pearl's body go cold and, in a panic, gripped her wrists tighter. Pearl either didn't notice or noticed so acutely that she couldn't begin to think of it as abnormal. "I…"

She felt like an idiot. The puzzle she'd been trying to create had already been there, hiding in the back of her mind for a thousand years. It had been pushed to its shadowy solace when Rose left them, but now it was back with full force, and she finally understood.

No, she wasn't solving a new mystery—she'd just found the very last piece of the one she'd been trying to figure out for so long.

"Oh, no," she whispered without meaning to. "I can't…"

Amethyst's hands fell back to her sides. "I know."

"Garnet knew."

"We did, too, y'know." It sounded like Amethyst had meant to speak sharply and lost her edge at last second, rendering her words flat and tired. "We just didn't wanna think about it, I guess."

"Are you kidding?" Pearl laughed once, humorlessly. She slowly lowered herself onto the white sand, which had turned cold from the sun's absence. Neither of them had noticed how late it was. "That would mean you felt it, too. That's not possible."

"No offense, but you're sorta oblivious when it comes to stuff like that." Amethyst sat beside the blonde, drawing her legs toward her chest so she could rest her chin on her knees.

Pearl only managed to stammer a string of "I"s before she gave up trying to deny the comment.

They stared out at the ocean in total silence for what could've been five minutes or thirty, for all Pearl knew. Amethyst, on the other hand, saw time tick by with amazing clarity, as if each second were a grain of sand in an hourglass sitting before her. She imagined that she was counting down the time they had left to be together as friends. After this, Pearl would probably never speak to her in any manner except that of a frigid, distant team member.

They both sighed in unison. Amethyst looked over at Pearl, who was still immersed in watching the water sloshing lazily on the shore, sitting with her legs straight out in front of her, as always.

If their relationship was already doomed, then she told herself there was no harm in going out with at least one fulfilled wish.

"Pearl."

The gem in question hummed before turning her face toward the other, looking sadder than Amethyst thought was strictly necessary. Maybe they'd been thinking the same thing. She felt like that was too good of a hope, because that would mean they were both wrong.

Amethyst blew her bangs out of her face before she leaned up and, with as much conviction as she could muster, pressed her lips against Pearl's. It lasted a second, maybe two, and in that brief time frame she saw an image in her head: the two of them dancing, seamlessly melding into the woman that Steven so vehemently sought on their journey for the Heaven Beetle.

Pearl's expression changed, but Amethyst didn't get a good look at exactly what it had become before the taller girl returned the kiss, pressing her hands against Amethyst's cheeks like she was afraid the gem would suddenly disappear right there on the spot. Everything seemed to fall right into place, just then.

The shorter of them laid a hand on the back of Pearl's neck to pull her closer, melding them not into one form but into one silhouette, joined by half-open mouths, soft inhalations, sides pressed together, thighs meeting in the same manner.

Pearl tasted strangely like champagne, but not quite. Like a distant memory of champagne, rather than the real thing. Sweet, yet sharp. Glittering, starry.

There was no more hourglass image looming in the periphery of Amethyst's mind; instead of the foreboding clock, there was another shining statue of glass, this time a drinking glass, filled with liquid that swirled and gleamed like a galaxy. Tiny stars bubbled off the top of the liquid, danced around the rim, and then disappeared in the atmosphere without a sound.

Amethyst had to break away to breathe, but, to her credit, Pearl sounded considerably more breathless.

"So, ah," the latter began as she shakily pressed her hand against her chest, "what does this mean, exactly?"

Amethyst's smile brimmed with laughter that she just barely managed to keep from spilling. "Really, Pearl?"

The blonde scoffed, flushing such a bright shade of blue that it would've been a spectacle if there had been people around. "I was just wondering if that meant—"

"Oh, you mean…" Amethyst's smile suddenly appeared sheepish. This, Pearl noted, was pleasantly out of the ordinary. "Uh, yeah. I think so."

Pearl's flush crept down her ears and neck. "I mean, admitting that one thousand years late is sort of shoddy…"

Amethyst shrugged. "Whatever. What happened to that, uh, ya know, 'I've loved you for a thousand years, and I'll love you for a thousand more'?"

Pearl laughed. "Isn't that a pop song?"

"I don't know."

"Yes you do."

"Okay, okay, yeah it's a pop song. What_ever, _you get my point."

The taller gem's laughter dimmed to a pleased smile, and she began fiddling with the iridescent green of her skirt. "That could be our song."

"Gees, Pearl." The signature grin was back. "You _would _say something like that."

Pearl hummed, decidedly unoffended.

"But I don't understand…" Amethyst started, her serious tone indicating the shift in subject. "Why would Garnet say this was dangerous?"

As convenient as ever, Garnet's voice arose to answer the question. "There's a fairly simple reason, Amethyst."

Pearl and Amethyst both jumped to their feet, the former standing stark-still, the latter looking rigidly set up in her effort to try appearing unperturbed.

Garnet smiled and adjusted her glasses when Steven jumped out from behind her legs and launched into the explanation, using various dramatic hand motions for accompaniment. "Garnet was just worried you two would keep arguing until you got so mad you _exploded _and blew up the entire planet like a giant popcorn kernel! Or that you wouldn't communicate quite right and then you wouldn't talk to each other like friends anymore and then you wouldn't focus on work and stuff."

The boy beamed, first at Pearl and Amethyst, then at Garnet, then back at the other two again.

Pearl blinked. "Oh…"

Amethyst snickered. "That's what Garnet said?"

Steven looked up at the sky and ground the toe of his flip-flop into the sand. "Well, I mean, I paraphrased a little. But none of that's gonna happen, right, guys?"

"Of course not, Steven," Pearl assured him, smiling at Amethyst rather than the boy. "We worked things out."

Steven sloshed his way through the sand to gather the two of them into a hug, and Garnet joined a moment later, lifting the group into the air to carry them back to the house. "I'm proud of you two," she said once she'd set everyone down just inside the front door, "for getting through this."

Steven looked up at her, and she added, "I'm proud of you, too, Steven. For not interrupting."

"Or eavesdropping," Pearl said.

"No, he did that," Garnet replied, "but he didn't interrupt."

Pearl flushed again and Amethyst followed suit. "Steven!" they cried in unison.

The boy pressed the tips of his index fingers together and smiled apologetically. "I just wanted to make sure you guys were all right."

They couldn't stay angry at that. Pearl sighed. "It's okay. Just don't go around listening in on people's conversations anymore."

"Unless we ask you to," Amethyst put in.

The boy nodded his head so vigorously Pearl feared for a second that he would hurt himself. "I won't! Cross my heart!"

With that concluded, Garnet and Steven headed off to their respective rooms, leaving Amethyst with all the persuasion she needed to wrap her arms around Pearl's waist and flash a cheeky grin up at her. "So, you love me, huh?"

The blonde smiled. "Unfortunately."

"That's so rude, Pearl."

"Oh, I know." She rested her hands on Amethyst's arms and shrieked a laugh when the other dipped her. Right as she began to verbalize her marveling toward the fact that Amethyst was able to do the dip correctly, she found her voice being cut off by an insistent kiss and, not even two seconds later, a loud whoop from the top of the stairs.

Pearl hit the floor with a thud when Amethyst dropped her. "I thought you said you weren't going to eavesdrop anymore, Steven," she said, too busy rubbing her head and ignoring the other girl's laugh-bitten apology to even bother sitting up.

"I didn't mean to! I was just gonna come back downstairs." He looked genuinely worried he might've broken a promise, so Pearl let him off the hook. When he disappeared into the kitchen, she finally stood.

Amethyst suppressed another laugh. "You still love me even though I dropped you, right?"

Pearl said nothing, but her smile practically put stars in her eyes. "You are ridiculous."

"Love you too, Pearl."

* * *

**Bonus: **Amethyst chuckled, and though Steven was thankfully unable to see the part of Pearl's body that her hand found itself colliding with, the taller gem's entire face was blue from the very incriminating sound that the smack created. That, coupled with the (also very incriminating) gasp she emitted almost sent Amethyst into another laughing fit. "For another thousand years, right?"

"Not if you ever do that near Steven again."

"To be clear, that means I can do it when he's _not _around?"

The blonde's face kept getting bluer. "Be _quiet!_"

Amethyst smirked. "I'll take that as a yes."


End file.
